Search form

Depression, and women

The link between women and depression is notoriously problematic. While decades of research studies show that depression rates in women are higher than in men, explanations vary widely in both substance and depth. Recently Daniel and Jason Freeman have written about “The Stressed Sex” (OUP) arguing that higher rates of depression in women (20 to 40%) result from increasing pressure on women “to function as carer, homemaker and breadwinner.” In other words, the women who have it all by doing it all are most at risk of depression.

It is not surprising that Allison Pearson demands, “Does Daniel Freeman really think this is news?” and suggests that he “should get out more.” (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/women_shealth/10078756/Its-no-wonder-w...) Pearson has first-hand experience as a survivor of depression, and of course has written the classic comic novel (“I Don’t Know How She Does It) about the impossibility of success: in the novel we see Kate Reddy’s nerves torn to shreds by her success at work and at home. She has it all because she does it all; the juggling of multiple tasks drive the narrative to farce, collapse, and finally a kind of renewal in which the ideal of having it all is (sort of) rejected.

As important as it is to understand how unrealistic demands – often self-imposed but in response to others’ expectations – foster unnecessary dissatisfaction, we should not lose sight of the more persistent, subtle and insidious vulnerability in women to depression. Daniel and Jason Freeman touch upon this when they say that a large part of women’s work is under-valued, such as domestic work, that as employees women are awarded less pay, and that women find it more difficult to advance in their careers. Lack of recognition may lock one into a bell jar in which one feels unseen, un-heard, un-real. We need resonance; we need a sense of effectiveness and value; without social and interpersonal reinforcement, we fall vulnerable to depression. And so it was that the very first study of women and depression by Brown and Harris (“Social Origins of Depression” 1978) found that it was lack of variety in one’s work and social isolation that were causes of depression. Staying at home, deprived of adult companionship, without personal recognition or financial reward for the daily grind of managing young children: Women were at greater risk of depression because women were more likely to be housewives. Not having the option to do more, not being allowed to juggle and stretch made them vulnerable.

There is a great deal to be said for juggling: it can offer good mental health, a sense of competence and effectiveness, variety both in tasks and companionship. Sometimes being unable to do everything arises from a wealth of choice rather than constraint; giving something up in these circumstances may be a cause of regret, but not of that the soul searing loss associated with depression.

The nub of the issue is where the source of energy to juggle comes from, whether from a deeply personal well or whether from ideology or panic over others’ disapproval.

In Pearson’s novel, Kate Reddy is described in the novel as “running on empty.” Emptiness – lack of energy, emotional loss - is frequently described by people suffering from depression. This emptiness is deep, dark and disordered, a disconnect between one’s life and one’s inner self. And herein is the connection between ideals of perfection and the impossibility of success and depression in women. Commitment to meet ideal standards is a commitment to an unreal and impossible standard; more importantly, it is commitment to someone else’s standards, and motivates actions not in response to one’s own needs and wishes, but it response to external standards.

When doing research on women and depression Dana Crowly Jack identified the invidious power of the Over Eye – that judge who comments and assesses our actions and feelings and even our thoughts, to check whether these comply with a standard of goodness. For women, the external judge is constructed in part from the ideals that may entrap us as we envy other women’s perfect lives, or as we suppose that someone else is the perfect girl everyone loves. The emptiness is loss of self, as the Over-Eye drives us forward, or, as Crolwy suggests in the title of her book, “Silencing the Self”. Some women I interviewed spoke of going through life in “gut gear”, a term that refers to a mode of acting and choosing that makes no reference to their own personal preferences or desires. Instead, what shapes their daily actions are external judgements and expectations alongside a supposition that their own needs do not matter.

The rates of depression have been higher in women (and adolescent girls) than in men since records began; neither the new ideals of having it all have nor the expanding nature of roles have increased rates among women; in fact, the Freemans’ findings that rates are 20 to 40% higher in women than in men actually suggest a decline from the 2008 statistics showing that over a lifetime women are 70% more likely than men to experience depression. (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/statistics/1mdd_adult.shtml)

It is not juggling that puts women at risk of depression, but what all too often drives hectic activity: a compulsion to please others, or to live up to an ideal and a mind-set in which one’s own desires are worth less than those of others. None of this is news, but it is important to track the shifting shape and the disturbing persistence of depression’s special impact on women. When we understand this, we will be better placed to understand and address the conditions under which people – women and men – are most vulnerable to depression.

I don't think this article will surprise any women. Being a born a woman is the most depressing thing there is as society says we have zero importance aside from the way we look and being a slave providing sex, domestic duties and childrearing.

I grew up a depressed girl because I realized from the very beginning being born female is like a curse. We have no intrinisic value even in what some insist is the modern world of today. Nothing really has changed. I feel like my whole life was a waste because I was born female. Tested at age 11 with IQ of 165 yet my father insisted it was a "waste of money to send a girl to college" despite school officials trying to get my in college courses while a high school sophomore. It seems to me more a waste to humanity that someone with high IQ does not get educated because there is a lot of potential that could have been used to better the world. I couldn't put myself through college because being a lowly female in the bible belt I wasn't able to get a job that paid enough to live on my own let alone pay for college because women don't get paid as much. I finally ran away with someone to another state and got a job but again the men were paid more than women for same work. I ended up with a host of medical problems including an autoimmune disorder with no cure. Life savings was spent on medical bills and now I am on disability. Since I have no spouse, no children and on disability and am not attractive I have zero value as a human being because that is all society values women for. Now I struggle to live yet am required to be caregiver to my aging father the one that places no value on women. Have a feeling most women have similar stories. There is no reason to be happy if you are female because we have no value in this world other than taking care of others and providing sex.

You seem like a woman with zest - the original fire that we all - men and women - come in this world with. On top of that you do have intelligence, a rare commodity if what you say was your IQ score. Both the verve to live an overflowing life and the ability to figure things out should place you ahead of many. So even if you are in disability, I believe, there is still a way to make much of a life you wanted -- nay, dreamed. I tell you this as a 70 year old with around 50% unemployment record(yes I did say 50) I, after retiring with little pension, but enough to live in a modest apartment and with the few aches and pains that accompany, I have been able to have the best time of my life as I have completed the draft of a book about obesity looked through humanistic values - a perspective I have not seen having scoured a few hundred books and countless articles. No, I'm not making any money out of it - yet - but it's the satisfaction of having discovered what no one else seem to have had.
So Go ahead live the life that's waiting to be lived by YOU.

N.B. I keep myself in general shape by doing what is commonly known - starting my day with strenuous yoga and an hour brisk walk each day, including Xmas!

I'm surprised that this article doesn't mention the ever present threat of physical and sexual violence that girls and women live under and learn to be wary of from a very young age = or are victims of in significant numbers. Or the religious and cultural oppression that so many girls and women suffer under all around the world in so many different ways.

I also wonder about the concept of historic or generational trauma. It's only relatively recently that women have gained basic human rights (and these are still denied in many parts of the world). The trauma of centuries of oppression doesn't just go away after a few decades.

This was an interesting article with some good points. The main question I took away from this is; why are women still at a higher risk for depression during times when they had both very little and very much? The study in 1978 found that there was a lack of variety that led to a woman's depression, and today's studies say that there is to much variety. When I read the article it seemed to paint women into a victim role, where it didn't matter if they had it all or nothing, there will still be a problem. So I read it again. I thought if it can't be the work, or really the pressure, since rates were high in both eras, what could it be. The go to answer is me, man, but that would be to easy.

Even though the first comment on this article was painfully personal, I agree with the general idea. One difference is in intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. From an early age there are differences in raising a child. One is to learn and do things for themselves, and another to do things and learn things due to others. I didn't list genders specifically here, because the differences are also seen in birth order within the same gender, but for the sake of this article you could decide which one fits which gender. Extrinsic motivation is fleeting. Money, power, fame, doing it for your family and friends are all weak and temporary motivators. They're fickle and tend to break easily. The article lists these as reasons for woman's depression in the business world, but these usually fall short of a deeper issue, a missing internal motivator or lack of a positive outlet (the business world is deadly for everyone).

Without an internal motivator, a desire truly built for oneself, it doesn't matter what task is accomplished or goal is completed. When the day ends and what you wanted has consistently never happened the mind remains unsatisfied and eventually breaks.

While I agree with everything in this article, commentaries such as this rarely shine a light on the social/environmental factors that force women to multitask, juggle, and become isolated in the first place--institutionalized discrimination and the devaluing and "invisibilization" of care work/reproductive labor which is confined to the private sphere where the gendered division of labor is deeply entrenched. Social attitudes and public policy have a role to play here, yet are rarely connected as part of the solution. E.g., changes to the workplace, the idealized worker, public investment in child care, quality education and health care...and the more difficult, but changeable, norms and attitudes that perpetuate the hierarchy between men/women, masculine/feminine, "women's" work vs. "productive" (i.e, "men's") labor...

Your comment is very helpful in highlighting the social context in which women experience depression. If you feel this aspect is not adequately covered in this blog then you could try the chapter on women and depression in my book Working Women Don't Have Wives. Indeed, the lack of social value given to caring labor, the isolation and lack of control contribute to this vulnerability. Thank you for your comment.